According to Finmeccanica, the Polish Ministry of Defense has chosen the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master as the Advanced Jet Trainer for the Polish Air Force.
The contract, worth 280 million Euro, includes eight Master aircraft (plus option for 4 more planes) along with maintenance and logistics bundle. The final signing of the agreement is planned in Jan. 2014.
Based on the first reports, the Italian company offered the lowest price (280 million Euro), while the remaining offers were more expensive (BAe Systems with the Hawk T2 – 420 million, Lockheed Martin with the T-50 – 430 million Euro).
Still, we can’t but notice that the M-346 represents one of the most advanced jet trainers available today and a perfect lead in trainer for the Polish F-16 Block 52+.
The budget allocated to the AJT program by the Polish MoD was around 1,2 billion Polish Zloty (around 290 million Euro).
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M-346 contracts already signed include Italian Air Force, Singapore and Israel.
According to Jacek Sońta, spokesman for the Polish MoD, until the contract is signed the remaining competitors may appeal against the undertaken decision.
Jacek Siminski for TheAviationist
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